In the next blink, we’ll take a look at how we are entering a new era beyond natural selection. Together, Darwinian evolutionary theory and Mendelian genetics turned the tide in biology. That meant that an offspring’s genes are inherited as distinct units rather than being a perfect blend of its parents’ genetic makeup. In cases where the two genes in a pair are different, one gene will always be dominant. Mendel posited that individual traits are passed on independently of other traits. But it was one of his contemporaries who took the first steps in understanding how our biological heritage actually works.īy studying the traits passed down to the offspring of over ten thousand pea plants, the Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel found that a plant’s traits are formed by pairs of genes inherited from each parent plant. In the process, we have outcompeted other species, such as our Neanderthal cousins, to extinction.ĭarwin understood the big picture of evolution. Human traits have been so advantageous that we have survived and multiplied across the planet. Our species, Homo Sapiens, emerged around 300 thousand years ago. Around 540 million years ago, mutations among organisms skyrocketed, exploding into diverse ecosystems of plants and animals. Today, most scientists agree that the first single-cell organisms emerged 3.8 billion years ago.
In other words, populations evolved since species with more advantageous traits survived and reproduced more than those with less advantageous traits. Small, inherited variations in traits enabled populations to compete to survive and reproduce in a process which he called natural selection.
This assumption was challenged when Charles Darwin published his classic On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859.īased on years of meticulous research from his voyage around the world, Darwin posited that all life on Earth is related.
At that time, most people believed that humans were magically put on Earth by God along with all other creatures and that they had always been the same. Had you told someone this two hundred years ago, you would have been called a heretic. But, in fact, 700 million years ago, a mutual ancestor of humans and fruit flies roamed the planet. When combating fruit flies in your kitchen, it may seem hard to believe that these annoying little creatures are related to you.
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